Buying 2016 RX350 at non-Lexus dealer
 

I'm looking at a couple of 2016 and 2017 RX350 at non-Lexus dealers. Have the following questions:
1. Is the balance of the factory warranty still in effect. Is it transferable to me?
2. Can I get a Toyota extended warranty? Are those available! I also have a Mercedes and bought a real MBZ extended warranty from another dealer, far away but still MBZ warranty
3. How about a maintenance package? Are those available from a dealer at a reasonable cost. Again, I purchased MBZ package from another dealer, out of state.

Thanks in advance.

PS. I know those items are usually available with a CPO vehicle so I'm trying to compare apples to apples.

This is my first Lexus but I’ve had many many Toyota’s (parent company). As far as Toyota’s policy goes on Toyota’s as long as the titles a clear one the original warranty does transfer to subsequent owners. However you can only transfer an extended warranty if you purchase the car at a Toyota dealer. Back in the day you could buy an extended warranty from out of state before yours expired but I believe the dealers were complaining that everyone was buying them down south at a few hundred bucks markup so they were trying to protect the golden goose by making it that you could only buy the extended warranty from a dealer in your home state. With Toyota you could only do a certification if you buy the car through them though. The CPO for any car company is a cash cow as there 300 million point inspection they so proudly advertise gets done on intake to every car on the lot anyway. If the price tag/profit on the car is high enough there going to change the basics like tires, brakes, battery anyway as well as get a cheap paint job on the bumpers, some paintless dent removal repair, wheel correction, paint leather seats if needed. This is all basic stuff for an expensive car but if it’s certified they mark it up 2-4 grand and sell you basically an extended warranty banking on the car to be fine. The one cool thing with Lexus they do include the next two service no matter what they are. So without getting there few thousand for the certification process I doubt they’ll do it.

Want to comment on the maintenance package. NO. I have heard it is around $2,000 for three or four years or X amount of miles. You just bought the most reliable make for 8 years in a row by J D Power. You just bought the third least expensive to maintain of all the manufacturers, only behind their cousins Scion and Toyota. By the way Mercedes is the most expensive.

I get all my maintenance done a la carte. I never ask for the 15, 30 or 60,000 mile service. The 60,000 mile maintenance for instance is brake fluid changed, oil and filter changed, tire rotation and cabin and air filters replaced. The rest is a bunch of inspection that is not needed IMO. This service will be about $600. Oil change $75, tire rotation $20, brake fluid changed $120. These total $215. The filters are about $20 each and takes five minutes to replace. Total $255. Every spring and fall Mobil gives a $12 rebate on the five quart jug. All done on line. Upload pic of receipt. This lowers the over all cost down $12 to $243.

We both drive about 12,000 miles in a year. Every 3 1/2 years we put on 30,000 miles. It cost us around $415 for maintenance for both. It breaks down as brake fluid change every 30,000 miles $120. Filters at $40 ($20 for air and $20 for cabin) replaced twice total $80. Three oil changes at $141. I buy Mobil 1 at Walmart the five quart jug for $24. Toyota filters bought on line for $5 and Toyota and/or Lexus charges me $30 labor to do the oil change. Three tire rotations $25 each for a total of $75. A luxury vehicle that cost us over 3 1/2 years $415 to maintain is incredible. Now one could argue they can do this with their Mercedes or BMW. Good luck!!!

This is where dealers make there real money! I never get the packaged together deals. Years ago my wife had a leased Mitsubishi Outlander on the 25,000 service they tried to sell me a $650 service which included all the bs filters, new spark plugs, atf fluid change, brake/power steering fluid change, and all the inspections. I pointed out the booklet said the atf fluid was lifetime and the fluids were scheduled for 50k and 100k for the plugs. I politely declined got a $45 oil change/tire rotation went to parts desk and bought air/ac filters for $20. This dealer has surprisingly closed down, I don’t understand why. Ha ohh and his rebuttal to me was that I live in NJ which is considered extremely abusive to cars and to throw out the service manual that doesn’t apply to NJ, oil changes were synthetic and recommended every 10K miles but this dealer put the sticker for every 3,000 miles anyway.

This is why we call dealers STEALERS.

So what is certified car with extended warranty and service worth?
 

So what do you guys figure is the APPROXIMATE worth of having a certified car, with the additional warranty and the 4 (2 yrs.) services worth? How much of a premium should I expect to pay for a certified car and is it worth it? I know it's kind of answered before but I'm slow.
'Most of the newer Lexus rx350 I'm seeing are dealer certified cars. Very few non dealer. Looking at a non-certified car at a MBZ dealer which seems to offer a substantial discount. You know, Mercedes, especially the E cars which are very nice, drop like a rock the first three years. They all come back on leases. That's what I set out to buy but the dog does not approve and I have a harder time getting in and out myself. I have a 2015 Toyota Venza now which is very nice but a little noisy, under-powered and not so comfortable. Looked at the Lexus RX350 on a whim and was surprised at how nice they are. Wish they dropped in price like the Benz after three years. We keep our cars a long time, 10-20 years.

The CPO tag will cost you $2000-$3000 more, which is about the same price of an extended warranty from most dealers. It's more of a peace of mind and what that's worth to you. Ideally, you would want to find a highly optioned CPO at a good price. This way, you really get the value of the early depreciation. Example: For new cars, you can get anywhere from 10-20% off MSRP. You wouldn't want to pay a premium on a base CPO because they have to sell at a certain price point to differentiate CPO versus Used and that difference of a newly discounted car will be minimal.

I consider 0-2 year old CPO vehicles to be among the worst buys available in the entire car market.

The demand for those 0-2 year old CPO vehicles is high because there are many people who are attracted to the idea of buying an "almost new" car at what they think will be a heavily discounted price. At the same time, the supply of 0-2 year old CPO vehicles is low because not many of them have yet come back to dealers as trade-ins or lease returns. The combination of high demand and low supply leads to highly inflated prices. And, when you add in the $2500+ cost of the CPO certification and warranty, the prices of those 0-2 year old CPO vehicles start to come very close to what you would pay for a brand new and similarly equipped vehicle.

Further, dealers tend to be unwilling to do much discounting from advertised CPO prices because they know that, eventually, someone will come along and be willing to pay those inflated prices. They can be confident that that will happen because they know that there are many car buyers who have no idea of how much discounting from MSRP is available on new cars, and they have no idea that they could buy a new and similarly equipped vehicle for very little more than they would be paying for the 0-2 year old CPO vehicle.

When I bought my 2017 ES in the fall of 2016 at the very beginning of the 2017 model year, the dealer had two similarly equipped 2016 CPO ESs on their lot. They were actually asking more for those two cars than what I paid for the brand new 2017, and they ended up selling both of those CPO cars very quickly at very close to the advertised asking prices.

Further, there are many who mistakenly think that a CPO vehicle will always be in like-new condition. On the various CL model forums, you will regularly find posts from people who bought a CPO vehicle and who later discovered that the car had issues like paint or body work that had not been done properly. If you look at the CPO inspection checklist, you will find that most of the 161 items are things that anyone could easily check for himself/herself, such as whether the car starts, whether the lights work, whether the power windows work, whether the doors lock properly etc.

Also note that, if you buy a CPO vehicle, the CPO warranty is not transferable to the next owner. So, the re-sale value of, say a 2017 CPO vehicle 3 years from now will not be any higher than that of any other 2017 vehicle. In fact, since it will now be a 2-owner vehicle, it will likely be worth marginally less than what a 1-owner vehicle would be worth. And, even if you could buy a 2 year old CPO vehicle for a few thousand less than what you would pay for a brand new 2019 car, at re-sale time a few years down the road, the higher re-sale value of the 2019 vehicle will more than offset whatever you might save by buying a 2017 CPO vehicle now, instead of buying a new 2019.

Adding up all of the factors is what makes me believe that the 0-2 year old CPO vehicles are not close to being good buys.

We bought our 2013 GS350 F Sport from Putnam Lexus a year ago. CPO made sense, because it had 58K miles. The 60K service is a biggie; probably $900 or more.
I am not worried about the drivetrain; my concern was the electronics. If something went wrong, getting into that dash would be big bucks.
I am very happy with the deal, I feel they treated us right. We bought a new 2018 RX 450h prior to the GS, and another 2019 a month ago.

10 or 20% off on new cars?! I think your finger slipped and added random numbers.:woot:

Best case scenario but that's definitely the case. Depending on options too. I was referencing posts here:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...so-far-48.html
and
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...-prices-9.html
10% being the norm and 20% being the rarity.

CPO worked for us even after number crunching. The '16 CPO RX350 AWD we got had all of the options. If I was to build a comparable 2019 on Lexus's website right now, it would be $61,489 brand new. At best case scenario of 20%, that $61,000 is going to be $48,800 + tax/fees. The CPO we got was $36,500 + tax/fees. The $12,000+ savings made sense to us. The 3 year warranty total (1 from remaining + 2 from CPO) was a piece of mind that we wanted to pay a premium for over a regular used car.

Of course, the total savings will change depending on the initial MSRP you are comparing to. That's why the more the options and if you can find it at a good price, it can make sense.

CPOs are not new cars, you can't compare what you pay for a CPO with what you'd have to pay for a new one. On a NEW one you'd do very well to get 5%

So...I'm betting smarter.
1. Figure $2,000 premium for a CPO car. I agree that is not a deal breaker on such a reliable car, but an extra $2,000 for extended warranty seems OK, especially since most of the cars I'm seeing are CPO. Two years worth of services seems OK also.
2.I'm also understanding that the more options you have, the better deal you'll get on a used car. Seems like loaded and stripped get pretty much to the same amount of money in the used car market.
3. Wondering if there is a site where I can figure out what is standard and what came as extra on a Lexux RX350, accorging to VIN.

I agree, I never said CPO are like new. I simply said, if I wanted to get the same features on the CPO purchased, custom build it or look for available inventory with similar features on a 2019 model, the starting price will be whatever the MSRP is for 2019, which is around $60,000.

Yes, I understand that CPO is a glorified used car. Basically a bunch of marketing BS + 2 year warranty in Lexus's case. For our specific scenario, it's a 3 year warranty including the 2 year from the CPO since there's 1 year remaining from the original warranty.

Also, you can definitely get more than 5% over MSRP on a new 2019 or 2018. If anything, you can barely haggle down CPO in most dealerships here in the Bay Area. Looking at TruePrice and just inputting options, a 2019 RX with popular options has an MSRP of $53469. The trueprice average is $49700. Without even dealing, that's a 7% discount below MSRP.

Yes you are!

Check out this site, Lexus provides: https://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrive.../vehicle-specs

I was literally on that checking out cars that I was interested in before I came into the dealerships to view/drive the car in person. I was hunting for RX specifically with blind spot monitoring and this site helped a lot. Also be mindful of the manufactured date. If you are indeed buying a CPO, remember that you get the remaining warranty of the 4 year/50,000 miles. For example, ours started at the end of March 2016. We purchased in the beginning of April 2019 with about 36,000 miles on it. This gave us close to 1 year/14,000 mile + the 2 warranty for the CPO.